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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1979)
Section SANDY, OREGON. THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1979 The sdnBy Post ____ _______ j p p O T tS and Recreation Summer basketball heats up in Sandy by MARK K U IY I) Mark Floyd photo Mandy High ha»rrunner John Martin dive« bark to first base safely after an attempted pirkuff play by David Douglas. Martin made It easily, but Handy lost to the Scots by an M-2 score Monday on the Handy High field Martin had three base on halls and two steals In the game. Legion team faces education It should be quite an educ ation for the Sandy High legion baseball team this summer An education because Sandy has a new coach, a lot of young players and because two of the teams in thr league will be in the new Timber Valley league next year The new coach is Curtis Heath, the former junior varsity coach for the Pioneer* Heath will have a lot of his JV squad playing for him this summer and so far their baptism into the big leagues has been a bit rough Sandy opened at Columbia Friday afternoon and suffered a 9-1 lass David Douglas came to the Sandy field Monday and. deult the hosts an 8-2 setback Sandy managed only one hit In each game, a fact that doesn't concern Heath too ntfi< h — at least no yet "The pitching that we've faced has been exceptional," he said, "and it's not going to get any worse "But that's not bad," he added quickly ‘ We've got a lot of JV kids who aren't used to that kind of pitching and it will help them get ready for next year I don't think anyone in the league next yeur will throw as hard as some of the guys we’llface " Heath figures that, with time, the hitting will come around. It's the fielding that concerns him at the moment, as well as the pitching "We've got the potential to play better baseball «than the first two games)," he said "We need to get our pitchers on a steady rotation "They can be representative but they need to play steady baseball," Heath added "And the defense needs to be more consistent " Sandy committed four errors against Columbia and three against the Scots. In both games, the miscues allowed the opponents to keep rallies going after Sandy had made the first two outs Once again, Heath pointed to the pitching and fielding "Put those two together and Sandy High can play some pretty good baseball," he said. " If you have a weak hitting club, and we've had some troubles so far, you’ve got to play some heads up defense to stay in the game '* Sandy may get a bit of a preview of next season when it plays this Friday. West Linn comes to town and Lions will be part of the new league next year So will Oregon City, and a potential rivalry is in the making — both teams are nicknamed the Pioneers Sandy will Heath is counting on a summer of legion ball to help point next year's Pioneers to a possible playoff berth But in the meantime, he is not forsaking a few victories along the way. View over spring vacation." "Winning is important — for the morale and the program," he said, "but if we can remain competitive this summer, I think we'll be heading in the right direction " travel to Oregon City for a game June 20 "Hopefully we’ll have a new look for next year," Heath said. "W e’ll be having new uniforms and we'll be traveling to play Bend and Mountain HANDY COLUMBIA 000 010 0—1 1 4 033 111 0—9 5 1 D AVID DOUGLAS 020 420 0 — 8 11 SANDY 100 000 1 2 1 Summer is a time when most high school kids try to get as far away from the confines of the school as possible. Especially when there’s plenty of warm, sunny days to help ease the painful memories of education But not all high school students have flown the coop A couple dozen have been hanging around the Sandy High gym of late playing, of all things, basketball The summer basketball program at Sandy is beginning to pick up steam after the completion of baseball, track and finals Sandy coach Dennis Warren has rounded up a dozen or so varsity prospects while Len Eaton is handling a like number for the junior varsity A handful of players w ill a lte r nate between teams Summer basketball is a bit different. You play with a running clock, personal statistics aren't kept and attendance is a hit or miss thing So it was Thursday when the Pioneers hosted David Douglas in a pre-season, informal scrimmage For the record, the Pioneers won 53- 41 but that’s not what the coaches were looking for, according to Warren. "Our emphasis is on personal im provement as well as looking at dif ferent offenses and the development of the team outlook," Warren said "We played a pretty decent game (against David Douglas) though they were without a few players Of course, we were missing a couple of good players, too "Summer basketball is like that," Warren shrugged. “There’s always a kid going to camp, or working or going someplace with his parents." Warren has several players returning this summer from varsity ball, in cluding a whole slew of forward-center types who are in the S-foot-3 range Heading the list is Mike Riley, the Pioneers' leading scorer and a second- team all-leaguer. Others in the same Heath hopes team will make the breaks by MARK FLOYD Curtis Heath is an interesting character Taking over the reigns of a Iosina baseball team may not be the most enviable task in the world, but Heath views it as a challenge. Heath was named to the head coaching position of the Sandy High baseball team, succeeding Glenn Smith who retired at the end of the spring The majority of next year's team is already under the tutelage of Heath, who also inherited the job of coaching Sandy's legion baseball team Heath had been Sandy High's junior varsity coach. Prior to that, he coached at the Class A level at Bonaza High School from 1970-75. While at Bonanza, Heath took over a less-than- impressive program and guided the team to success, although it took a couple of years. "We started with a lot of fresh men." he said, "and those first coqyle of years... " "But by the time they got to be juniors and seniors, we had a team," he added "We were 31-5 those two years and we made it to the state championship game, losing to Regis 7-5 " I think I know the ingredients to a winning program and I ’d like to get back into a playoff situation," Heath said Don't expect success too soon, but Heath already has his team doing some slightly unorthodox things Like trying to steal third base three times in one game. "You'v e got to test the other team ," he said " I like to create situations where we create breaks, not wait for them. " I like double steals, and hitting and running." he continued. "You’ve got to create opportunities to get runners in scoring position." Health pointed to the game against D avid Douglas Monday as an example "John Martin was our leadoff batter and he didn't get a hit,"Heath said. "But he got on base three times on walks. The first time he scored, and the second time he stole second base and was in scoring position "You've got to get those front men on base,” he emphasized. "With the power coming up, you’re going to get people across home pla te." Heath acknowledges that he is a goal-oriented person as well as an optimistic one But he also feels that goals should be kept somewhat in perspective. Therefore, he isn’t predicting that Sandy will take the state in baseball next season Making the league playoffs may be a more reasonable target But you have to believe that Heath is looking toward a state title somewhere down the road—it ’s in his blood As a high-schooler at Madison, Heath played on two state cham pionship teams Ther. there was the team he coached at Bonanza In between, he took a break from baseball to play basketball for Por tland State University. Heath feels that Sandy has the potential to become a very good team, especially if the pitching staff develops some consistency. "We have five pitchers right now who, on any given day, can be very competitive on the mound," Heath said " I don’t know of any other team in the league next year that will have that kind of s ta ff" "But our defense needs to be more consistent," he added, looking over the scorebook of the first two games. " If you have a weak-hitting club, and we only got two hits in our first two games, you have to play some heads- up defense to stay in the game." Seven errors in two games is not exactly heads-up defense and two Sandy losses show the tragic results. But Heath has a young team to work with and it’s just a matter of time before the errors began to take a backseat to the hits. And when that time comes, look for Heath and the Pioneers to be on the way to one of their goals—like the league playoffs. size category include Paul Daugerty, Lee Godfrey and Tom Curtis Curtis has been on a weight program for track and has developed into a much stronger player since winter while Daugherty has greatly increased his spring while working out as a triple jumper on the track team Rick Martin leads the guard can didates, along with Rick Fry, Scott Wemnger, and Ken Reick They may also see action at small forward Up from last winter’s junior varsity team are Doug Turin, Rob Brauer and Ray Lowe Among those seeing action on both teams will be Mike Spradling, Bernie Kennebeck, Jeff Yoder, Bob Nippert and Mitch Paola Nippert and Paola are both freshmen. With an abundance of players at the forward-post position Warren is looking at revamping the offense to take ad vantage of the inside game. “We re going to look at different screening situations offensively," he said "Basically, we re going to be more layup oriented—we're going to the inside game. "We took the ball inside for some easy hoops on back cuts against David Douglas," Warren said "But we need to improve some of our defensive qualities individually " They had better improve in a hurry because there are several good teams in the summer league And with them are several faces the Pioneers haven't seen, players from different leagues who could offer a challenge to the Pioneer defense, especially since zone defenses are outlawed in the league Parkrose and Central Catholic are two of the bigger names while others include Barlow, Marshall, Gresham, Centennial, Columbia, Lincoln, and Reynolds, as well as David Douglas and Sandy. "It's going to be an interesting league," Warren said. " It gives our kids a chance to play against some top- rate talent like Byron Howell of Central Catholic. “There will be a lot of good black players we’U face and that’s something we don't see too much of in our les^ie, * Warren added The Pioneers will be fielding a largely senior team and the develop ment of a new offense may take some time; often new strategies are not easily learned after three years of something else. But that's what summer basketball is all about—working on improvement and trying new things. "We realize that kids have a whole lot to do in the summer," Warren said, "and it ’s not our idea to take the summer away from them." "Summer basketball is not man datory but we want to offer the kids an opportunity to play and a lot of them take advantage of it," Warren added. "And we’re starting to get some pretty good crows at some of the games," Warren said. "There’s more and more of an interest in following summer basketball. It's not always nice to sit in a hot gym to watch but the setup at Columbia is pretty nice." All summer league games are played at Columbia High School in Troutdale. League play will begin tonight when Sandy takes on David Douglas in the small gym at 6 p.m. The emperor returns home but not for long "David, get rid of the bloody ball! Don’t stand there!" "Kareem! Where’s Kareem! Oh, look there’s six men on him! Madden, call the bloody foul!" Far atop the sea of faces at the "Fabulous Forum," high above the action under the flag, it was the return of a native, the restoration of a Tudor Napoleon had escaped Elba The long exile was over After 2 4 years, Jack Kent Cooke was back In charge In the heyday of his sports empire before a bitter divorce and a retreat to Las Vegas, Jack Kent Cooke ran a sports empire second to none in history He owned a National Hockey League team, a National Basketball Association team, and 85 percent of a National Football League team, the Washington Redskins Plus one of the prestigious auditoriums of the world, the Forum This was no dilettante owner Jack Kent Cooke was not a dilettante anything He was at courtside, at nnkside, or on the 50 yard line repeatedly, usually in the company of invited film or TV stars He spent his time bellowing explicit instructions to his team on the floor They would all hotly deny it, but they played better in those days lack Kent Cooke has always been an impatient man, a man in a hurry, a damn thetorpedos aggressor It was a quality that first attracted him to Roy Thomson, a twinkly eyed man on the move himself, who parlayed a heavily mortgaged backwoods radio station into a broadcasting and publishing empire which saw him end up in the peerage, lx>rd Thomson of Fleet, before his own subscription expired Cooke rode almost as far as Fleet Street with Thomson, but Jack was always an extravagant ad- When the L A Coliseum Commission reneged on building him a fancy room for V IP entertaining, and the Sports Arena hedged on prime dates for his hockey franchise. Cooke threatened to build his own arena Everyone laughed and said what a card he was. They were still laughing when Cooke pulled it off. Cooke financed his arena the same way the Dodgers' Walter O’Malley did — by selling the TV and broadcast rights to oil companies on an if-come basis The new American out Americaned the Americans by J IM M URRAY mirer of the American way of doing business He loved the rough and tumble south of the border He always wanted to play with the big boys there So he moved to the U.S. and, characteristically, he couldn't wait to become a citizen He got Congress to make him one He always hankered to own his own newspaper or major league sports team, and, when the Inkers came on the market, he paid 85,175,000 in cash for them without blinking an eye. He also bought radio stations, cable TV systems, finally, the Redskins, and the ex pansion hockey franchise, the Kings They used to say of Cooke in Canada that he sold ! encyclopedias to guys who couldn't read and soap to guys who didn't have running water But Cooke likes to say he’s dealing in the oldest American commodity of all — faith He would really rather be Alistair Cooke than Jack Kent. An omnivorous reader, he originally set out to be a man for all seasons, and not just sports He led a band, became an expert at bridge, played the clarinet, composed music, kept books and sold time. He bankrolled the historic first Ali-Frazier fight in 1971 His next trip to New York was less triumphal He rushed there to save his cable-TV business from the brink of bankruptcy, thanks to an executive accused at bribery and double-entry bookkeeping O p e ra tic out of a hotel room on the scene, Cooke restored the firm and saved the stock, which had plunged from 45 down to 1 4 in the crisis Can he restore the Kings and Lakers, franchises teetering on the brink of boring everyone to death, or, worse, go to other forms of entertainment? In Cooke’s absence, his empire became a democracy, with all that is attendant on that — work men who give a day's work for a day's pay, and no more, even when a day's pay is one eightieth of 8750.000 Guys who go home early. Guys playing out their option because they think nobody cares Or they can’t get an answer. If you could run a business by phone, every corporate executive in the country would be doing it from the Bahamas, or a pool in the south of France all year long Cooke didn’t exactly sit up in Las Vegas and let his hair and fingernails grow, but, in his absence, the Lakers became a demoralized franchise, and the Kings looked like a bunch of guys out on the rink at Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday afternoon Their idea of a back- check is one you give a guy and ask him to hold it for a week till you can get to the bank. Is the return permanent and a restoration of lost glory? Or will it just be another 100 days of Bonaparte? Will it be "Long Live the Emperor!" or just Waterloo! A lot of people think Cocke not only can’t run his team by phone, he can’t run it from up there in the second balcony, either He should be back down on the floor where he can see what's wrong and do something about it. Is he fixing to leave all the turmoil and retire to his reading and gardening*’ Jack Kent Cooke smiles. "Some people get tired early," he observes "Never been my trouble." Is he cloyed with sports? He shakes his head " I’ve got a lot of little boy in me. I root. I get hung up on winning Keeps you young.” NFL commissioner Pet Rozelle handed him an easy out, ordering divestiture of his other franchises in order to stay in the NFL. Will he take it? Cooke looks dangerous " I can’t comment on that. There's some litigation by people who own soccer and tennis fran chises, in sports that need them, as well as in the NFL. It's a question of constitutionality." Is the Constitution the last refuge of scoundrels? "Not at a ll," protests Cooke " It ’s the first refuge of the innocent, the per secuted ” (C) 1979, Los Angeles Times Jim Murray is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Editor's note: This column, part of the best at Murray series, was written some time ago before he underwent eye surgery Jack Kent Cooke announced Tuesday he plans to seU the Lakers, the Kir«s and The Forum to a Los Angeles businessman. M ir r a y ’s regular column Is expected to resume in a few weeks.
